Hockey: Kiwis still in with a golden shot

Blair Hopping. Photo / Herald on Sunday

New Zealand, cruelly denied a win over Spain in their penultimate pool match at the Champions Trophy in Monchengladbach yesterday, go into tonight's match against England still with a chance of playing Australia for gold in Monday's final.

New Zealand and Spain finished 4-4 in a cliffhanger, with the Black Sticks scoring all their goals from the field while Spain needed three from penalty corners to stay in touch.

It was the third of those goals which caused the most controversy when the umpire awarded the Spaniards a dubious penalty corner with just 5secs to play. After a delay, and from the second attempt after the New Zealand defence had blocked the initial strike, Spain snatched a vital goal and point which denied the Black Sticks the win they deserved.

It was another fighting effort from the Black Sticks, who fought back from 0-1 after 15 minutes - a fortuitous goal scored by a deflection from Blair Hopping's stick - to equalise with a well-taken goal from the again impressive Nick Wilson.

Spain went 2-1 ahead three minutes before the break but New Zealand, with a great run and ball into the circle from Ryan Archibald, equalised 17secs from the halftime hooter when Simon Child provided the clinical finish. Captain Phil Burrows gave the Black Sticks the lead for the first time nine minutes into the second half. Steve Edwards stretched that to 4-2 11 minutes later with a stunning reverse stick shot.

Spain rallied and scored two late penalty corners to deny the courageous New Zealanders a second win over higher-ranked opposition.

"Today's game was one of the reasons people come to see hockey," said Black Sticks coach Shane McLeod. The draw followed the 3-1 win over the Dutch two days earlier which in turn had come after 9-1 and 5-2 losses to Australia and Germany.

In later games Australia retained their unbeaten charge with a 3-1 over second-placed Germany to cement their place in the final while England scored their first win beating bottom-of-the-table Netherlands 4-3.

Should New Zealand beat England in the first of the final round-robin matches and Australia make it five-from-five against Spain, the Black Sticks could win through to the final if the Dutch beat Germany.

McLeod goes into tonight's match with some confidence.

"Against Holland we proved that we can hold teams," said McLeod. They took that one step further yesterday and showed they can also score goals, taking their tally in their last two matches to seven.

CHAMPIONS TROPHY
Last round matches
* 11pm (Saturday): New Zealand (4 points) v England (4)
* 1am (Sunday): Netherlands (3) v Germany (6)
* 3am (Sunday): Australia (12) v Spain (4)